The Office of the Attorney General of Washington (the “AG”) has updated the Frequently Asked Questions (the “FAQs”) for the Washington My Health My Data Act (the “Act” or “Washington Act”) to provide guidance on the AG’s position concerning whether businesses must publish standalone consumer health data privacy policies under the Act. The update, first […]
Health Information Security
California Mandates COVID Exposure and Outbreak Reporting to Employees, Government Agencies
On Thursday, September 17, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 685 (“AB685”) into law. AB685 amends a number of portions of California’s Labor Code to address the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to provisions that regulate reopening activities at California worksites, AB685 introduces two new COVID-related notification obligations for California employers: (1) a requirement […]
White Paper on Privacy Issues in Proposed New National Medical Claims Database
Prof. Peter Swire, Elizabeth and Thomas Holder Chair at the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business and Senior Counsel at Alston & Bird, has published a new white paper on “Possible Privacy, Cybersecurity, and Data Breach issues in the Proposed National Medical Claims Database Under Section 303 of S. 1895.” Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray […]
German DPAs Issue DPIA Blacklists; Many Companies Likely to be Affected
The GDPR entered into force on May 25, 2018. One of the GDPR’s core going-forward obligations is the duty to conduct Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) over processing activities that create a “high risk” to individuals’ privacy. DPIAs constitute an important aspect of GDPR compliance, as they arguably replace the notifications of processing systems and […]
Anthem Settles Data Breach Litigation for Record-Setting $115M
Health insurance giant Anthem, Inc. agreed to the largest data breach settlement to-date last week, ending multi-district consumer litigation over a 2015 data breach for $115 million. The data breach, which resulted from a hacker-orchestrated cyberattack following the theft of an employee password, exposed personally identifiable information (“PII”) and protected health information (“PHI”) of nearly […]